Staff Favorites - Mahon McGrath

Reviews

The 2013 leads with a nose redolent of low key cherry fruit accented by earth, tar, and dark cocoa powder. The palate adds dried orange peel, pine, cranberry, strawberry-rhubarb, and cinnamon and other spices, with the earthy dimension expressing itself as baked clay. Throughout, the dusty fruit character is never over played. While the mid-palate has just a bit of heft to it, and the finish is supple and creamy, there is nothing approaching over-ripe here, and the oak keeps a low profile, which, at this price, makes this fully dimensional Pinot Noir a hard bargain to beat.

The 2014 opens with notes of green melon, talc, lime, and tomato leaf. There is a decidedly cool, brisk, greenness to this Sancerre, with its focused, tangy flavors of lime and crushed rock. The mineral component asserts itself on the finish, giving the emerald glade bit a little textural contrast.

This is one of those simple pleasures; an attractive, affable, affordable white wine for anytime and no particular occasion. With no oak anywhere in sight, the crunchy yellow fruit shines forth, picking up honeyed, floral, and citrus accents. There’s good heft to the mid-palate, and an emphatically crisp finish brings the proceedings to a definitive close. Permission hereby granted to splash it about liberally, as needed!

There’s no mistaking the varietal here: this is indubitably Sauvignon Blanc. Lemongrass and pepper have the van, followed by a tropical/citrus dimension, and, lastly, wet riverine rocks. All those aforementioned notes recur on the palate, with the fruit taking up a little more bandwidth in the overall scheme of things. This has a tad more to say about what it is made of, than where it is from, compared with other Loire Valley Sauvignon Blancs, and so is a nice crossover wine for fans of domestic or Kiwi bottling of that varietal. Perfect breezy, light-on-the-pocketbook refreshment.

Most people ask you for a dry rosé if they’re searching for rosé, but not all. When made off-dry, the danger of the wine being cloying is real; however, getting the balance in an off-dry wine right is also possible, too. Bugey Cerdon is a useful example of this, and so is the Les Ligeriens Rose d’Anjou. Not at all a dessert wine, this is basically dry. There is plenty of acidity backing up the softer, sweeter, floral dimension you find initially, and it finishes cleanly, without any residual sweetness. This is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky wine, and the low alcohol makes it perfectly suited to an afternoon picnic, for instance, or any other warm weather, out-of-doors get-together.

I’ve long been a fan of Sancerre rosé. That’s not to say I’ve loved each and every one indiscriminately and unequivocally. When it is done well, though, there is a purity and a rigorousness to the best that many other regions and varietals just can’t seem to pack into a bottle of rosé. The 2014 Eric Cottat finds a nice poise between the more convivial, come-hither side of rosé, with bright berry fruit and pomelo notes, juxtaposed with whiplash acidity and rocky undercurrents. Vibrant and compelling, this is more than fun or pretty; it manages to both captivate your senses and capture your interest. Get it while you can!

Over a foundational bed of minerality, the 2014 Eric Cottat Sancerre Blanc builds from a lemon-lime, cilantro framework towards suggestions of more exotic fruit notes. The evocation of “cool” here is primary, though: try not to think of green mossy rocks and ferns stream side while sipping this. The palate turns the tables, and sees the flinty-chalky dimension come to the fore, with the citrus buoying it up. The difference between this Sancerre blanc and others around its price point, to my palate, is in the length, and intensity, of flavor. While it doesn’t quite manage the heft of larger scaled Sancerres, it hints at it. Get these while you can; we never seem to have enough from this small grower-producer to meet all the demand!

Why Loire Sauvignon Blanc? You’ve got rocks in your head, that’s why. Or, at least, you will when you taste a nice Sancerre blanc like the 2014 Millet. It starts out with gooseberry, guava, green melon, lime, and verbena, set against the aforementioned mineral dimension, on the nose, and carrying through to the palate, with wet rock, light melon, and citrus notes repeating, before a clean, lip-smacking finish. This is a perrenial fav., and the current vintage continues the string of successful releases from the Domaine.

Are you looking for an emphatically dry sparkling wine, but at an everyday price? Then the Nicolas Idiart Blanc de Blanc Brut is definitely one you should try. Scents of citrus, yeast, and florality on the nose lead the way into a medium-weight palate which evokes fresh-baked bread, in a diaphanous vein, before concluding with a welcome snap. Every fridge door this summer should be prepared, for the advent of necessity or whim, with at least a couple bottles of this fizzy delight.

Are you looking for oak and butter front and center in your Chardonnay, but at a price that makes it an affordable, everyday pleasure? This no-holds-barred style delivers just that and then some, with plenty of toasty vanilla, oaky spice, and buttery richness. Though definitely the secondary aspect, there is also candied pear and pineapple lurking underneath, and a decent level of acidity as a counter weight, keeping everything from slipping too far into the plush-zone. Could be just the wine for your Tuesday night white!

The key feature of this Champagne is, for me, the completeness. You get a little bit of everything, without an excess of anything. We have other non-vintage brut Champagnes that hit this or that mark well, but few that tie it all together so convincingly. Flavor wise, there’s fresh bread yeastiness, with just a slightly toasty aspect, citrus, and an underlying sense of minerality. The wine has good intensity, yet never takes it over the edge into the realm of the rich and robust, keeping a trimmer profile, and maintaining its vibrancy. Taste this once, and you’ll next thought will be to wonder whether you had the forethought to buy a second bottle.

The soft texture of Pinot Noir is here lain on top of a slight mineral rasp, and a brisk, prickling acidity, to delightful effect. Lemon-lime flavors, with fresh herb shadings, and wet rocks are joined to just a suggestion of the sweeter, berry fruit side of the rose spectrum in this wine. The sense of focus somehow concentrates the relatively delicate range of flavors in this rose into a precision beam that hits your palate with more force than might be expected.

This pretty Bourgueil rose boasts citrus, petrichor, and a delicate suggestion of florality in the aromatics. On the palate, the ruby grapefruit notes segue into a hint of peppery lentil before concluding with a lip-smacking finish. While I’d class this as one of those roses that appear solidly “dry”, it is not at all austere, just not flamboyant (well, the color excepted!) or candied, and at eleven dollars, it’s a steal!

Sweetly citric; more orange-y than lemon/lime, with a bit of crisp apple, this prosecco still cleaves to the drier end of the spectrum. The texture is almost the most salient feature to my mind: the mousse is generous, but oh-so-soft, and provides a wonderful frame for the gentle suggestion of sweetness implicit in the wine’s flavors. The only thing that will bring you up short is finding yourself at the bottom of the bottle.

Both the nose and the palate here bear evidence of the earthy, woodsy side of Pinot Noir. Roast beet mingles with cherry and dry brush on the nose, while the palate takes that cherry aspect and adds cocoa powder, earth, and more forest floor notes. The tannins are light, and the wine has an acidic profile, keeping this Pinot Noir lively.

The 2010 Soluve commences with balsamic notes, with a hint of anise, and dried cherry. The cherry fruit, while still dried, really comes holographically alive on the palate, where it is joined to tobacco, tar, and sandalwood. The tannins and acidity are well concealed within the wine’s over-all volume, making this an easy-drinking Chianti Classico Riserva for immediate enjoyment.

Apple blossom, lemon verbena, pea shoots, tangerine and meyer lemon scents emerge from the glass as you swirl this Austrian Pinot Blanc. “Emerge” doesn’t quite do it justice; there is a bodacious richness to the aromatics here. This firms up a bit on the palate, with the weight and flesh snapped into line by high acidity. Pleasantly juicy, there is just a wisp of something like almond/hazelnut-y lurking on the margins, before it finishes clean and fresh. If you like Chardonnay’s power, but are burned out on oak and butter, this Weissburgunder could be your lifeline.

The 2010 “Acumen” Cabernet Sauvignon lives up to its name, showing the felicitous results of mindful wine making applied to attentively farmed, mountain-grown fruit. The resultant wine is dry, focused and structured, with natural fruit counter-pointed by menthol and roast herb notes, along with woodsy spice. The key here is balance. It neatly misses the pitfalls of excessive ripeness and over-obvious oak, and I’d wager it will even be significantly better as the years wear on, the tannins begin to melt in, and the wine begins to stretch out and unfurl its full array of flavors.

Ripe plum, gravel, charcoal, and an ethereal vanilla note all feature in the profile of the 2013 Rudy Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium bodied and juicy, this vintage has slightly higher tannins than the previous one, but is still remains moderate overall. A light cedar note rounds out the roast plum that comes out on the finish.

Green melon, crisp apple, and wet pavement come through on the nose. While fresh and crisp, this wine’s acidity is buffered by its mid-palate weight, and so does not come across as austere. Gregarious and easy going, this is, as ever, a superb everyday white, and inexpensive enough to pour with relative abandon. Invite it to your next backyard b.b.q., take it with you on your next picnic; it can be your boon companion whenever and wherever the services of a good, thirst-quenching white wine is called for.

Aromas of lemon and wet sand start this Pinot Bianco off in a precise and steely vein. The first impression is belied, however, by the mid-palate, which does have a little roundness to it, with flavors of tangerine, a hint of just-ripe pineapple, and raw almond, with mineral backing. An excellent choice for a vibrant, refreshing, everyday white wine that’ll blend seamlessly into a wide variety of circumstances.

The Petite Sirah in this blend really makes a difference, even though it isn't the dominant partner, taking the Zinfandel well away from what you normally consider Paso Robles Zinfandel to be about. Black, tarry fruit, cocoa powder, and toasted coconut come out on the nose, leading into dusty, brooding, plummy fruit on the palate. Fine grained tannins make this easy to drink right now, and acidity keeps it lively.

The fruit for this bottling comes from 60 year old vines, versus a vine age of 30 years for the standard Cour-Cheverny. Not too different than its younger sibling, the 2012 “Les Sables” simply offers more of everything: there’s resin, lemon juice, hazelnut, beeswax, and dried citrus peel and ginger, on this medium bodied white wine, along with bracing acidity. Anyone lamenting the scarcity of stellar white Burgundy at bargain prices could do worse than to give this wine a whirl!

The Mas Codina cleaves more to the doughy-yeasty side of things, but has a light, delicate fruit character, in a citrus, tart apple vein. This definitely comes across on the dry side, and finishes clean, with a suggestion of green apple. Absolutely affordable, and well balanced, this is a great pick when you need good, inexpensive fizz!

Roasted herb, leather, and iron meet up with salty, balsamic, caraway notions, and light shadings of toasted coconut, on the nose. Somewhat fresher than the nose might lead you to believe, the dusty fruit on the palate is still well seasoned with spice and anise. The tannins are fairly gentle, though sufficient to imagine a future for this wine: whether you hold it will be down to how patient you are! The acidity, while there, never makes its presence obvious. Great Riserva for a great price!

Bright cherry-berry fruit, with warm baking spice accents framing it, lead into a medium bodied, juicy mouthful of wine. There is only the faintest whiff of tannin here; the wine derives its freshness and structure courtesy of its vibrant acidity. There aren't many domestic wines that stand up to the best of the competition at this price point from Spain, say, but this is one that really does, and boasts an unmistakably Californian character besides. This slides easily into the roster of top, everyday-red deals!

The 2013 Insolite boasts a veritable rainbow of citrus scents: lemon, lime, and orange mingle with a pungent quality reminiscent of the first bite of a kumquat, along with pea shoot and lemon grass. The palate is clean, streamlined, sleek, and cool, with the cuvee’s characteristic richness all but enveloping the bristling acidity until the very end, and a smidgen of talc dusting the robust fruit.

Round and juicy, this Chardonnay is driven by clean, tropical flavors of sweet citrus and pineapple. Its easy-going style, with a price to match, should make it a hit with those looking for an everyday white that has a little more richness than a Sauvignon Blanc, say, but avoids the oak-and-butter side of the Chardonnay spectrum.

You may already be familiar with the Shebang red, which has been a big hit for a California red blend. Well, it is time to get acquainted another good bargain bottle from the folks at Bedrock: their third Sauvignon Blanc cuvee. Flavors of tangerine, lemon, and cantaloupe, set against a green shiso note, mark this tasty, tart white. This isn’t grassy, feline, or highly herbaceous, and should be a good all-arounder when a fresh, lighter bodied, inexpensive white is what you want.

With a nose offering up citrus, lemongrass, and honeydew melon, this is a vital, vivacious Sauvignon Blanc. Svelte on the palate, the flavors run to pomelo and melon, while managing just a suggestion of a mineral dimension in the form of powdery talc notes. Should perform yeoman duty as the summer party season commences!

The all pot-stilled Powers John’s Lane bottling really ratchets up the intensity and complexity from the usual run of Irish whiskies, while remaining true to type. You’d never mistake this for Bourbon, Scotch or any other style of whiskey. The nose gives up orange marmalade, yellow plum, honeysuckle, powdery vanilla, and cedar, before a duet between toasted graininess and yuzu fruit, with spice and crème brulee accents, begins on the palate. I hope we soon see more like this!

Unctuous and rich, this Canadian Rye packs in an intriguing array of flavors that stays true to the character of the grain. Style-wise, it skews to the sweeter side of things, with a fat mid-palate, and a supple, seamless texture. This is definitely the best new addition to the--of recent days--rather un-crowded field of contemplative, sipping Rye Whiskeys that I've had occasion to sample.

Surprisingly sweet and round, with lemon, mandarin peel, and pine contrasting toasted almond, marshmallow, and vanilla, there is a solid depth of flavor here for a two year old rye. That being said, if you plan to make a Manhattan or some similar creation, go with a lighter sweet vermouth and be chary with it. I find this works best for my palate in cocktails with just a few small additions.
As an aside, it is refreshing to see that the bottle's legend freely admits to the whiskey being from sourced barrels, while the label's own distillates are coming of age.

Not every whiskey needs to be pondered. Sometimes, you just want something enjoyable that you can splash liberally about. For under twenty dollars, this delivers. Robust without being heavy, this Bourbon ranges from dried fruit, crème anglais, pecan and nougat, through to cinnamon, allspice, and cedar. While you could nit-pick this or that aspect, overall, I find this quite easy to enjoy just on its own, straight up. Nicely done!

It had been bruited about that such a creature as “navy strength” Plymouth gin existed, or once had, and here in the midst of the great cocktail revival, where many a long-lost dream comes true, it once more graces these shores. If you’re familiar with Plymouth gin, there are no great surprises in store for you here; which is just fine. Why mess with success? The Navy Strength bottling is simply a brawnier version of the classic Plymouth taste. When this is, for instance, mixed up simply 1:1 gin to vermouth(Noilly Prat), no garnish, as a Wondrich reprint of an early 1850's San Francisco Gibson recipe suggests, this is a fabulous drink, and one in which a standard proof just wouldn't cut it. With the Navy Stength, you can taste the gin’s presence clearly and distinctly. An excellent addition to the canon!

Does Kina l’Avion d’Or replace Lillet? Not exactly; more like compliments Lillet. While you can have a glass of Lillet all by itself, L’Avion is much too sweet for such a maneuver. The bitterness is also, correspondingly, more pronounced in the l’Avion d’Or, though it is still only moderately bitter. What is different is the scope. It would be more correct to say that it has an array of bitter flavors. When mixing, those flavors and l’Avion’s over-all robustness really stand out when you substitute this in a cocktail in place of Lillet. I think you might even find you want to adjust your proportions accordingly to take that into account. The fact that this is so clearly its own creature is to be commended, and provides plenty of room for the imagination to invent new drinks as well as showing established recipes in a different light.

I admit, I had my doubts. While a devoted fan of the sweetly aromatic, cooling smell of fresh mint, any attempt to capture that essence always seems to me to come up short. This liqueur comes about as close as I reckon you can. It doesn’t, naturally, take the place of fresh mint in cocktails; as much as it is true to the flavor, it is best considered as its own creature. It mixes splendidly, especially in gin drinks, where the juniper and the crème de menthe get together and execute a sort of cool tango on your tongue, and in a way that muddled sprigs wouldn't. So, yeah, I'm a convert: this is well worth checking this out.

What sort of aperitif is this? I'd liken it more to Dubonnet than sweet Vermouth, though it has a brighter, fresher berry-fruit character to Dubonnet's plush, bass heavy profile, and a more pronounced bitterness as a counterpoint. Note, though, that this is skewed more towards the sweet than the bitter, and therefore seems to me to suggest it wants dilution of some sort, whether passively by serving it over ice, or through mixing: dust off your copy of the Savoy Cocktail book for a few suggestions on how to get started if that latter course strikes your fancy.

As noted, this is NOT the same creature as the Leopold Bros small batch gin. At first, you might think it bears no resemblance; the aromatic profile is markedly different and I don't think anybody would want to sip this as is. What happens, though, when you mix it, is that that recognizable Leopold's suppleness of texture comes out. True, the botanicals here sing out clearly even when you are mixing it 1:1:1, but it still comes across more polished than savage, with the result that you can more easily plug this into a wide variety of recipes with excellent results.

Ever notice the way things can seem to recede from you apace with the attention you give to them? What seems a solid, known quantity or concept—a river, say—can be, depending on where you observe it from, both a bubbling spring on down to a many branched, meandering delta, and so is not one thing but many things. And even observing the portion that accords with the more straight forward conception of “river” is, itself, is up for question: where it is can shift drastically, and what it is, too: spring’s rush to fall’s hush, never exactly the same, as the old saw goes, twice. If there is a fault, it owes not so much to our perception and experience as to the limitation inherent in creating an idea of, and a name for, a phenomena or process both varied and fluxional.
“What the heck does this all this have to do with orange liqueur!?” I can hear you wondering.
Well, where once there was but Cointreau and Grand Marinier at the top, in recent years, the narrow scope of high-quality sweetened spirits flavored with oranges has burst its banks and proliferated considerably. You have at once recreations of historic recipes as well as re-imaginings with different spirit bases, or, as in this case, different oranges, specifically bergamot here. Considering the ongoing popularity of Earl Grey tea, and the ubiquity of bergamot as a component in perfumery, I’d say the Leopold Bros decision to include bergamot in the recipe for their orange liqueur constitutes a very sage twist on the Curacao tradition. While the aroma and flavor is distinctive, it is not so far removed from traditional preparations that it cannot be profitably put to use in cocktail recipes calling for triple sec, etc. If it is not the one orange liqueur everyone must have, I nevertheless heartily recommend it both as a tasty, finely crafted spirit and as a ingenious expansion of the possibilities of the genre’s boundaries, a welcome additional texture to the multiplicity of expressions the concept of orange liqueur is capable of.

There aren’t a bevy of Cognacs out there built for mixing. This one has two things going for it: 45% abv, and a formulation that is an attempt to recreate the flavor profile of a pre-phylloxera Cognac. So, does it fly? Yes, it does. That little bit extra strength combined with the robust flavor profile gives this the power to really sing out in mixed drinks where other Cognacs might just fade into the background. The flavor is mostly in the dry fruit and new leather vein, with a papery vanilla, and some citron and bergamot, in the background in this plump, round, reasonably sweet brandy. Try a sidecar with it and see for yourself!

This cask strength bottling of Red Breast certainly ratchets up the drama. There is more oomph, more richness and intensity, on both nose and palate. It remains, however, an Irish pure pot still whiskey foremost, and as such bears closer kinship to its more familiar version lower proof bottling than to the untamed ferocity of something like a George T Stagg. You ain’t toying with no pipsqueak, though; you will want ice or water or a bit of both to round the edge off. You get a wonderful range of baked banana, dried fruits, butterscotch and sweet grain, enlivened by a citric note that keeps things from seeming cloying or fatty. The finish here rolls on like thunder—well, civilized thunder, anyway.
I’d note, too, that if you’re mixing a Manhattan-style cocktail with Irish whiskey, this is probably the best one for the job I’ve come across to date. The cask strength really keeps the whiskey from getting lost amidst the other ingredients.

This has a meaty, rich, sweet date scented nose with toasted walnut and almond behind it. Once sipped, you recognize immediately that this sherry was none of the fat you might expect. While the flavors have good depth, this is quite devoid of heaviness and has plenty of salty, lip-smacking tang. The finish is lively and bracingly fresh, with a slight chalkiness and a lingering almond character. You can luxuriate in this Amontillado without the flavors ever cloying. With that said, however, you just might have to keep an eye that the 17.5% doesn’t get the better of you…

The dominant character here is a subdued toasted nuttiness, not specifically almond or walnut, with undercurrents of dried fruit. The palate is another thing altogether. This is one a wine that succeeds more on texture than nuance of flavor. While it is a sweet wine, it doesn’t put itself across the way a sauterne or even a sweet sherry would. It is as though you’d put the proverbial “spoon full of sugar” in your mouth-though for the purposes of this analogy we’d better make sure you’re visualizing raw sugar-and then sucked a fat wedge of lime. The tremendous acidity doesn’t just balance out the sweetness, but actually overcompensates for it, making it seem to finish much drier than it started and lip-smacking, too. Singular stuff. Works pretty nice with a slice of pumpkin pie and I’d wager you would get good mileage out of it with well-seasoned meaty bites, say dumplings of some sort.

Demerara-rah; that’s the spirit! The El Dorado 15 year certainly shows the benefits of the time that the spirit spent in barrel in the initial intensity of the nose and palate. What is better still is it pulls back a bit towards the finish and finds a little reserve, avoiding the bombast of certain other “too much isn’t nearly enough” long-aged spirits. Toasted chestnuts, antique woodsy vanilla and candied pear, papaya and pineapple ornament a core of lush, sweet sugar cane that switches about between the continuum of sugar-brown sugar-molasses without ever settling on just one, a sort of olfactory iridescence. Pull up an evening and a chair and settle in; you’ll want to linger long—in the same way that the finish does—with this rum.

This manzanilla plays down the toasted almond dimension of sherry, and offers instead clean, vibrant, salty aromas coupled with golden apple and a little sprinkling of parsley, even. Take a sip, and you’ll find a smooth texture and a pleasantly plump middle palate, finishing with a citric pucker and a lingering evocation of wet stone. Well worth trying where you’d normally reach for muscadet, say.

This has got to be one of the best values in an aged bourbon that we carry. The 12 years this spent in barrel is amply attested to by the nose: full, heavy, oaky vanilla fudge, a beam of bright maple syrup, peach and loads of spice. The flavors follow in a similar vein, with good richness of body. Relatively smooth, there is only a slight rasp from the oak aging and the finish brings back some of that light, bright vertical maple character. To my taste, it is a little too contumacious to use in a mixed drink; I recommend you sip this one only, but that, of course, in whatever fashion you like.

The 15 year is a really wonderfully warm, enveloping spirit. Apple, powdery vanilla, light caramel-almond notes build slowly as it warms in the glass until it has an almost palpable presence. The palate takes the apple in a dried dimension that somehow simultaneously has an unexpected juiciness to it, and, along with the caramel, gradually builds to an almost brown-sugary, date like intensity before fading gently to a finish of dried fruit and flowers. While this takes awhile to really strut its stuff, when it does it, it comes on with a vengeance. Be forewarned, this armagnac could definitely be habit forming.

One could reasonably expect a violet liqueur to taste like… well, violets, no? And yet, of the four varieties I’ve had occasion to sample, none taste exactly like the others. This new bottling, in my estimation, happens to be one of the best. Why do I say that? Pour a jigger of it over some ice cubes and add some soda. Take a sip. This is a liqueur with an arc, the flavor moving from a dry, dry-woodsy start into cool berry fruit and then on into a dusty, tranquil, ethereal twilight. Since it doesn’t have any coloring added, it won’t stain your drink a pretty purple-blue, but that is a small price to pay for the clarity of flavor it offers.

Damn, this is pretty! So very pretty-pretty! Juniper shares the stage with a prominent sweet citrus oil component and a delicately floral dimension in the nose. While the Leopold’s would have to be counted amongst new-styled American gins, I think it is really in a category all its own. Why? Take a sip. Yes; just of the gin straight, at room temperature. This is gentler, softer, suppler, and more delicate than any gin I’ve heretofore had occasion to taste. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily advise this for use in every cocktail recipe out there. For people who want that indomitable juniper character shining through in a drink despite citrus juices, liqueurs, bitters, absinthe, whatever you might throw at a gin in the course of making a cocktail, well, this probably isn’t that spirit. In more gin-centric drinks, this is beautiful, fresh, gracefully perfumed... and well worth a try!